Psalm 127:3-5 "A Father’s Treasure"
Everton Community Church. Sunday June 19, 2011 Father’s Day.
Behind every advertising message, there is an implicit morality. If you watch how father’s are treated on TV, bumbling dad is just looking to get away: Get away from the pressures of work and family. What they want is a fast car, more power tools and some time away from the pressures of work and family.
Modern readers of Ps 127 find themselves at a distance from its cultural setting and so perchance from its message. Its emphasis on the value of sons... cries out for a wider perspective. Living as we do in days of overpopulation and birth control, we need to appreciate the rigors of ancient society in constant need of replenishment against the ravages of disease, war, and famine. Living as we may in a more secure and just society, in which we enjoy peace, freedom, and lawful order guaranteed by a fair police force and judiciary, where urban alert systems and friends at court are unnecessary, the psalm’s immediate impact on us will be lost. In a more positive assessment of the psalm, we may well regret the apparent passing of times when high value was set upon the family as the basic unit of society and as a divinely intended source of comfort and strength and, conversely, sphere of responsibility (cf. 1 Tim 5:4, 8) (Allen, L. C. (2002). Vol. 21: Word Biblical Commentary : Psalms 101-150 (Revised). Word Biblical Commentary (240–241). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.).
In contrast to the frantic, self-absorbed, and self-sufficient work ethic described in the first stanza (vv. 1–2), the second stanza (vv. 3–5) unfolds the quiet blessing of God on a family through the gift of children. This stanza seems so different from the first, both in its subject matter and its tone, that quite a few scholars believe that it must have been an entirely different psalm originally. They are far from thinking like an ancient Jewish person for whom the well-being of his family was never far removed from every other concern or endeavor. Most of us think of work and our families in nearly separate categories. We live highly compartmentalized lives. But the Jew would ask, Why is the house being built if it is not for the family? and why are the watchmen protecting the city if not for the families that live in it? Then as now, the family is the basic unit and most important element of society. The only difference is that the ancient Jew knew it, and we generally do not.
Children are "A Father’s Treasure" because: 1) The growth of a family is God’s work (Psalm 127:3) 2) The growth of a family is an Important Resource (Psalm 127:4), 3) The Growth of a family Impacts a City (Psalm 127:5), and 4) The Growth of a family Needs God
Children are "A Father’s Treasure" because:
1. The growth of a family is God’s work. (Psalm 127:3)
The second stanza begins by confessing that children are a gift of God, a heritage, and a reward.
Psalm 127:3 [3]Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. (ESV)
God builds the house and the family to live in it; he guards the city and raises up the families protected by its walls. Reward translates a word that means “wages”; (it is not) a payment for good deeds, but in parallel with heritage the word stresses the idea of an unearned gift... (it is) the lord’s generosity in giving children (Bratcher, R. G., & Reyburn, W. D. (1991). A translator’s handbook on the book of Psalms. Helps for translators (1074). New York: United Bible Societies.)
Families are God’s idea. It was God who gave the first woman to the first man in Eden:
Genesis 1:28 [28]And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (ESV).
• It follows from this that we must thank God for our families and look to him for wisdom to raise them rightly.
What then if God is not the builder and foundation of our family:
Poem: (Family, Spiritual Decline of)
To our forefathers, our faith was an experience.
To our fathers, our faith was an inheritance.
To us, our faith is a convenience.
To our children, our faith is a nuisance (Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching (146). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.).
Children are "A Father’s Treasure" because:
2) The growth of a family is an Important Resource (Psalm 127:4)
Psalm 127:4 [4]Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.
Children are a heritage from the LORD, and therefore his gift, and yet the father must do something in bringing the children into the world and in raising them to be faithful members of God’s people (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (1107). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.)
Children, are as arrows in the hand of a mighty father.
I. THEY ARE SO FOR PROTECTION. Those children that are born when their parents are young will be of age to help and maintain their parents when these need such help. They defend their home from the attack of poverty and want.
II. FOR HELP IN THE BATTLE OF LIFE. The spur and stimulus which children impart to their parents, the pleasure they give, the love they awaken, the aspirations after good they arouse,—all these things are of vast help in life’s battle, even “as arrows are,” etc.
III. NEED TO BE CAREFULLY PREPARED. Arrows do not grow of themselves: they have to be wrought out with much thought and care. So our children.
IV. AND TO BE WELL AIMED. What is our aim for our children? The arrows will go where they are sent. How many parents there are who have no worthy aim for their children! They will be glad for them to “get on,” to become rich, and to take good positions in society. If they have aim, it is no higher one than that. And those who profess the higher aim, that their children should be the Lord’s, how badly, clumsily, carelessly, they seek that aim!
V. SENT FORTH WITH ALL POWER. See the “warrior/mighty man/father,” how “he bends his bow and makes ready his arrow upon the string,” and then draws it back to its full length, that it may speed with the more force on the way he would have it go; that is a picture of the strenuous, careful endeavour we should make to urge our arrows, our children, in the right way. But what all too little strenuousness there is in this matter!
VI. THEY ARE SURE TO WOUND, IF NOT KILL, SOMEWHERE. The foes of the home—want, godlessness, evil reputation and character, strife and ill will, hopelessness and despair, the malice of men, and much else, the children should slay, and not suffer them to come near us; and good children do this. But if we have not so trained them to thus serve the home, then they will turn and wound and pierce their parents to the heart. Bad children do this. Yes, always, they are “as arrows.”( The Pulpit Commentary: Psalms Vol. III. 2004 (H. D. M. Spence-Jones, Ed.) (230–231). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.)
Children can be arrows for fighting the Lord’s battles, so keep them polished and sharp and aimed in the right direction (Wiersbe, W. W. (1997). With the word Bible commentary (Ps 127:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.).
These arrows in the hand, may be directed ... to the mark, God’s glory and the service of their generation, but afterwards when they are gone out into the world, they are arrows out of the hand; it is too late to bend them then. But these arrows in the hand prove often arrows in the heart, a constant grief to their godly parents...( Lange, J. P., Schaff, P., Moll, C. B., Briggs, C. A., Forsyth, D. D., Hammond, J. B., McCurdy, J. F., & Conant, T. J. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures : Psalms (620). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.)
Please turn to Jeremiah 9
The focus of Psalm 127 is on possession of the land. The promise of the land and the promise of the seed belong together. There could be no building up of the nation without children who would carry on the work and keep the promise of the Savior alive. The emphasis on sound family life became especially important during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, when many, even among the leaders of Israel, were deserting their first marriages and intermarrying with their heathen neighbors. Personal satisfaction had become a more important goal than raising a godly family. Our society is repeating that mistake (Brug, J. F. (2001). Psalms : Psalms 73-150 (2nd ed.). The People’s Bible (226–227). Milwaukee, Wis.: Northwestern Pub. House.).
Jeremiah 9:7-16 [7]Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? [8]Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. [9]Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? [10]"I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. [11]I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant." [12]Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? [13]And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, [14]but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. [15]Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. [16]I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them." (ESV)
From the time that arrows are directed towards a target, leave after being released and the time they take to hit the target, can be considerable, especially if they have to travel great distances. It makes a tremendous difference on where we direct the arrows over the time of their flight:
Illustration: (626 Go Back! You’re Too Young)
Wilbur E. Nelson told the story of his father who was the senior elder in his church for many years. He said: "When I was a boy, eleven years of age, an evangelist held a series of meetings in our church. One night he asked every Christian to come forward and also asked those who desired to confess Christ to come with them. My father, of course, went up, and, as I felt the call of God, I followed after him. Just as he reached the front he turned around, and seeing me, said, “Johnnie, you go back; you are too young.” I obeyed him, as I had been taught to do, and at thirty-three I came again... lost (was) twenty-two years of service, while I lost twenty-two years of growth because my own father, an officer in the church, had said, “Go back.” (Wilbur E. Nelson as found in Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.)
Children are "A Father’s Treasure" because:
3) The Growth of a family Impacts a City (Psalm 127:5)
Psalm 127:5 [5]Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
As arrows are indispensable for a warrior to succeed in battle, so children are invaluable as defenders of their father and mother in time of war or litigation. The more such defenders, the better (MacArthur, J. J. (1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ps 127:4). Nashville: Word Pub.).
Please turn to Job 29
The enemies in the gate are a man’s adversaries in a legal dispute; the open space near the inner gate of the city was the place where legal disputes were settled (see Ruth 4:1–2; Job 29:7–17). If he had a number of grown sons with him, a man would be more likely to win in a legal dispute with his adversaries (Bratcher, R. G., & Reyburn, W. D. (1991). A translator’s handbook on the book of Psalms. Helps for translators (1075). New York: United Bible Societies.)
Job 29:7-17 [7]When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square, [8]the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood; [9]the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth; [10]the voice of the nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. [11]When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, [12]because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him. [13]The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. [14]I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. [15]I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. [16]I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. [17]I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
• Nothing is said of monetary wealth or of position: an upstanding family is wealth enough and honour enough. And it is not untypical of God’s gifts that first they are liabilities, or at least responsibilities, before they become obvious assets. The greater their promise, the more likely that these sons will be a handful before they are a quiverful (Kidner, D. (1975). Vol. 16: Psalms 73-150: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (478). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
Since the family is the basic unit of society, if the family prospers, the nation will prosper too. If families are neglected and decline, the entire society will decline with them. Presently, families are disintegrating, children are neglected, and the frequency and magnitude of violent crimes are soaring. This theme is so important to the psalmist that he carries it over into the next psalm and with the same relationships. Psalm 127 begins with the city and moves to a consideration of the family. Psalm 128 begins with the family but moves to the city.
Psalm 127 speaks of many children and of sons especially, saying that a large number of sons (a full quiver) is a blessing since they will be able to stand by their father and defend him when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. We may perceive the numbers a bit differently today, when large numbers of children are not necessarily an asset to a family. On a farm perhaps they would be, where they could work the fields, but not necessarily in an urban environment, and not when the cost of a college education for just one child is approaching $100,000 and is supposed to be $200,000 by the time today’s toddlers become teens. Nor are sons a greater blessing than daughters in today’s world. But those are contemporary matters. Details aside, the point of Psalm 127 stands: Children are a blessing from God, and they with their parents are among the vital foundation blocks of a healthy, thriving society. God’s blessing on the city begins with his blessing on the family, and where our families stand, our cities will stand too.
Illustration: (1625 Run Away, Boy!)
There was once a young man who stood at the bar of a court of justice to be sentenced for forgery. The judge had known him from a child, for his father had been a famous legal light and his work on the Law of Trusts was the most exhaustive work on the subject in existence. “Do you remember your father?” asked the judge sternly, “that father whom you have disgraced?” The prisoner answered: “I remember him perfectly. When I went to him for advice or companionship, he would look up from his book on the Law of Trusts, and say, ’Run away, boy, I am busy. ’ My father finished his book, and here I am.” The great lawyer had neglected his own trust, with awful results. (T. De Witt Talmadge as found in Tan, P. L. (1996). Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times. Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc.)
Children are "A Father’s Treasure" because:
4) The Growth of a family Needs God
If it is a vain act to build a house without God or watch over a city without depending on God to preserve it, then it is even greater folly to try to raise a family without God. A house is at least an inanimate object that will benefit from sound workmanship, and threats to an ancient city were mostly only from enemies outside the city. But what about ourselves and our children? We carry the seeds of our destruction within us. We are sinful people, with rebellious spirits and an inborn tendency to turn our backs on God. Like ourselves, our children are also rebellious, obstinate, self-centered, and wayward. We must seek God’s help and do everything we are told to do in order to raise our children well. We need to pray for our children, teach them the Bible, bring them to church, and above all set an example by living for God ourselves. If we do this, the work expended on our families will not be worthless. On the contrary, God will bless us and our children too.
Thus far we have been thinking of houses, cities, and families literally, as we should, since this is the way the psalmist obviously intends his words to be taken; but these are pilgrim psalms, what impact will the family have for us corporately?
For us the house that is being built is God’s spiritual temple, composed not of earthly materials but of “living stones”:
1 Peter 2:5 [5]you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (ESV)
The family involved is not our mere physical family but the whole spiritual family of those who belong to Jesus Christ (John 1:12–13).
John 1:12-13 [12]But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, [13]who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (ESV)
Just as with physical children, the birth of new spiritual children is God’s work, and we must look to him to do it. Blessed is the family, either physically or spiritually who is full of Children from God. This psalm, which speaks of contentment at work and contentment at home, addresses two of the most urgent needs of our society. It gives us a message to apply in our own lives and to share with our society. It was tragic that Solomon did not practice more fully in his own life the truth he advocates in this psalm. As the book of Ecclesiastes points out, Solomon had to learn the hard way. It will also be tragic for our society if we fail to learn the lessons taught by this psalm. We too will learn the hard way (Brug, J. F. (2001). Psalms : Psalms 73-150 (2nd ed.). The People’s Bible (227–228). Milwaukee, Wis.: Northwestern Pub. House.).
In light of Psalm 127 we have a choice to make. We can either rely on our vanity or upon God’s energy. We can either fool ourselves into believing that we can control things, or we can surrender our false sense of control to the living God. Here is the promise: if we make the surrender, God will build our house, God will guard our city, God will provide for our needs, and God will reward us with fruitfulness to the next generation. Is there really any choice to make? As we give up control, we will become emotionally and mentally healthy, to say nothing about having God’s true perspective on our lives (Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Vol. 14: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 14 : Psalms 73-150. The Preacher’s Commentary series (415). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.).
(Format Note: Some base commentary from Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms (Pbk. ed.) (1119–1122). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.)
